1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wager gaming machines. More specifically, it relates to managing electrical current usage by peripheral devices in a gaming machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
An increasingly complex issue arising with multi-station gaming machines, such as gaming tables, which have peripheral components at each player station is power management. A player station at a gaming table typically has multiple peripheral devices, as would a single-player or conventional gaming machine, including a card reader, a ticket printer, bill acceptor, coin hopper, and the like. Thus, a six-player gaming table may have to control and provide power to 24 or more high-current peripheral devices, in addition to providing power for standard gaming table operations. For example, five players may insert cards, bills, or tickets at close to the same time. If performance or time to the player is not a concern, one device may be enabled at a time (i.e., a first come, first serve approach). However, this method may have a negative impact on player performance.
If the power supply in a multi-station gaming machine is not designed to handle high demands on power, peripheral devices may become unpredictable, which is a very undesirable scenario in a gaming environment. In other situations, an overload on power may cause the power supply to reset and data may be lost. The gaming table may also go into “over-current” mode, recovery mode or have an overload shutdown.
If power in a multi-station gaming machine is not managed to somehow avoid overloads using internal logic and intelligence, the power supply would likely have an unwieldy and impracticable design (e.g., to accommodate extra margin for high demands?). As a result it would be difficult and more costly for casinos to install. For example, it may require 14# and 16# gauge wiring, special circuits, and generally, a more complex and higher capacity power supply. In addition it may also be harder to manage too large for connectors used in gaming machine power supplies.